Features of Whatsapp you probably don’t know

If you use Whatsapp on a regular basis and it is a very important part of your everyday life, you should know about some special features of the messenger service. Whatsapp delivers new features from to time, which you probably do not know. There are several tricks you can use on Whatsapp, which you had no idea was possible.

Here are some top features of Whatsapp which you might be not aware of:

You can disable the blue ticks

One common thing we all face about Whatsapp is the misery of blue ticks. You might be busy doing something and when a message gets delivered, you just glance at it briefly. You are not in the situation to respond immediately many times, but after you have sneaked a look at the message, blue ticks in the sender’s application indicates that you have viewed it. This situation might lead to misunderstandings as the person may think that you are ignoring him.

You have to access the Settings > Account > Privacy and uncheck the “Read receipts” option. This will disable the blue ticks, much to your convenience.

See when your messages are read

This is another hidden feature of Whatsapp which you can use for better stalking of a loved one. Using this trick, you will be able to learn the exact time your messages get delivered and the exact time your message was read by the receiver.

For using this trick, you have to go to a Whatsapp chat, tap and hold on a certain message in the chat you have sent and click on the Info button. This will give you the list of the time of delivery and the time it was read. For iOS users, you can drag towards the left side of the screen to open a window with the statistics. This trick can be used for group chat as well.

Control your privacy in group chats

The group chat option in Whatsapp is being used by more and more people and many groups are being created. You may end up added to a group filled with strangers, you can keep several details private.

For activating this feature, you have to go to settings, privacy and then customize your last seen, display picture and status. You can choose to share these with everyone, only with your contacts or with nobody.

Mute group chats

Certain group chats might cause you distress. We all are in one group chat, which is a source of great irritation because of the flood of messages that are received. Hence, you can avail the option of muting group chats.

For muting the group chat, you should tap on the group chat, select the group info and choose the option to mute the chat for a period of eight hours to one year. You will no longer receive notifications or pings of the group chat activity.

Create shortcuts for conversations

There are some people with whom you chat often and you can create a shortcut of their chat icon directly on the home screen. By doing this, you will not have to open and close Whatsapp.

You simply have to tap and hold the chat of your choice and from the (3-dots) select the option “Add chat shortcut” and the chat will appear on your home screen with the person’s profile picture.

Learn the truth about your friend’s exact location

We all have been a victim of the most common excuse of “on the way” by our friends and ended up waiting hours. From preventing yourself from getting fooled, you should ask your friend to share his location by selecting the Share Location option. This will enable you to get a map of your friend’s surrounding and tell you exactly where he is. If the location is GPS based, the location share will appear like a dropped pin, but in case of a location entered by your friend, its address will appear by the dropped pin.

Get selective notifications

All group chats are not of equal importance and many are filled with white noise. There are many group chats you are not interested in and want to ignore. Similarly, there are certain group chats which are important and necessary for you to follow. You can avail the option of staying selectively notified.

You have to go to the important group chats, tap on the name, bring up the group info and choose custom notifications. You will be able to select a custom message alert tone for the groups you consider significant.

These features and tricks of Whatsapp are not so obvious and in general, many users do not know about them. You can use these simple tricks to make your Whatsapp experience smoother and more self-customized.